True stories from the front lines of parenting.

Another Day in the Life of a Mom of Twins … Plus OneJanuary 30, 20150 Comments

Heather CHeather C is a married, mom of three: big sis Lily and identical twins Natalie and Sophia. She has been guest blogging for Mumbling Mommy since February of 2012 and began working as a Social Media Editor in 2014. After nearly a decade in banking, she now works part time at a doctor's office specializing in breastfeeding medicine and spends the rest of her days in her Midwest home as zookeeper/stay-at-home-mom. Heather C is also a runner, hiker, yogi, bike rider and more. She reads when she finds more than a few minutes to herself and she hosts a lot of pajama dance parties in her kitchen. In her spare time, she's the co-leader for her daughter's Girl Scout troop and an active member of the school's Parent-Teacher Committee as well as a certified postpartum doula.

A few years ago, Mumbling Mommy’s writers decided to begin chronicling what a typical day in each of their lives looked like, from morning to bedtime. When pondering a title for my post this year, the best I could come up with was “A Day in the Life of a Half-Marathon-Training, Homeschooling, Clean Eating, Freelance Writing, Stay-At Home Mom,” but it seemed that was a little over zealous, so I went for the mom of twins tagline.

I get really excited each year about writing these posts. This is now my fourth annual “Day in the life” post. Things have not settled down in the least bit since I am still a mom of twins (lol!). I absolutely love my life, though, and wouldn’t change it a bit! In case you are new to these mom of twins posts:

A Day In The Life: Mom Of Twins

5:45 a.m. – Wake-up time. I dress quickly and head downstairs for half marathon training. Today I put in 2 miles. It’s my “easy run” day since I have to do strength training, too.

6:30 a.m. – Run is over. Fastest treadmill time thus far. I’m feeling really good. Time to stretch and then get in 10 minutes or so of meditation.

7:00 a.m. – Time for my shower. It’s just a quick 5-minute rinse off. I only wash my hair a couple times a week and today isn’t one of them.

7:15 a.m. – I’m dressed, the bed is made and I hop on my phone for a few minutes to get some social media posts scheduled (I do some paid freelance work.)

7:30 a.m. – I wake up my 3-year-old twin daughters and almost-6-year-old daughter. We have a morning routine that includes bathroom breaks, making beds and getting dressed.

8:00 a.m – Everyone is dressed, so downstairs we go. I make the girls small bowls of Nature’s Path Whole O’s (They are like Cheerios but organic and gluten-free.) I top them with honey and some dried cherries and almond milk. On the side, they each want a handful of dried blueberries, a banana and a handful of cashews. They all choose grape juice to drink this morning. (We water it down still, even for my older daughter.)

8:15 a.m. – I quickly scramble up some egg whites for myself and eat them alongside some acorn squash I had previously baked. I enjoy a hot cup of peppermint tea as well. As I finally sit down to eat, the girls skip away from the table with full bellies. I send my oldest off to pack her backpack and then to orchestrate teeth brushing for herself and her sisters.

8:30 a.m. – I pack a lunch and snack for my kindergartner and run up the stairs to grab my shoes and get shoes for all the girls, too.

8:40 a.m. – Out the door we go for school drop off.

9:00 a.m. – (Yes, only 9 a.m.) Back at home, I grab my lesson plans and supplies and begin homeschooling my youngest two daughters (They are 3 years old.) Today we are learning about the arctic. We read a book from the library, talk about igloos and do a craft to go with it, practice tracing shapes on dry erase mats, sing songs about penguins, play in a bowl of ice cubes and then finish off our lesson with homemade snow cones using our Vitamix blender and grape juice.

11:30 a.m. – It’s time for lunch. I make celery, apple slices, a handful of almonds, dried apricots, string cheese, a little kettle popcorn and a fig granola bar for the girls. (This is the same thing I packed earlier for my oldest. The fig granola bar serves as her morning snack since they eat lunch so late.) I eat a stir fry of Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, tuna, cabbage, and artichoke hearts, with apple slices on the side. Post lunch I hear giggles coming from the playroom as I finish up my food and the girls get some free time. I clean up the dishes and switch the laundry, too.

1:00 p.m. – I start on some work for the afternoon. On my list today is some Pinterest-style social media marketing and working on drafting edits for an independent product review guide company (These are both more versions of the paid freelance work I do.) I have Taylor Swift’s new album 1989 playing and I text my best friend at the same time to catch up with our crazy lives.

3:30 p.m. – My kids did not actually sleep 2 3/4 hours. They played for at least the first hour. I begged them to sleep. I took away their stuffed animals. They finally complied after my 800th trip up the stairs and slept maybe an hour before waking up to play again. I finally let them out of the room at 3:30. (It’s not locked or anything. Technically, they could come out earlier. They just don’t. It’s like the one rule they follow.) We put on a movie. Today’s choice: Doc McStuffins.

4:15 p.m. – My husband and daughter are home. I check her folder and get her started on homework. We work a little bit on her science fair project, putting the last few finishing touches on it while my husband makes dinner. I switch laundry again as well.

5:15 p.m. – We eat dinner earlier than most families. We like it that way. We are having a “cheesy” broccoli soup from the freezer. (We made it with the Vitamix a few weeks ago.) It uses nutritional yeast for the creaminess since I can’t eat dairy. We top it with Canadian bacon and chunks of steamed broccoli to make it thicker.

6:00 p.m. – It’s bath night for the twins, so I take them upstairs. Big sis has a date with daddy and they hide in our master bedroom and play with K’Nex. They built a Ferris wheel already and are working on butterflies this time, I think.

6:40 p.m. – Bedtime for all the kids! We brush teeth, use the bathroom, get jammies on, read stories and get tucked in.

7:00 p.m. – As if the day hasn’t been long enough, I change clothes and head downstairs for that strength training I mentioned earlier. I do 30 minutes of push-ups, pull ups, sit ups, lunges, squats, jumping jacks, mountain climbers and hand weights.

7:45 p.m. – Finally, finally it’s time to rest! The hubby and I watch the series finale of Weeds on Netflix and then debate what show to start next. We agree to disagree for the moment and go ahead and watch a few episodes of Shark Tank recorded from previous weeks.

9:30 p.m. – We head to bed. I don’t play around with my sleep. Seven to eight hours each and every night is a MUST if I’m going to do it all over again tomorrow.

That was actually exhausting to read even for me. Sorry, guys! I swear many times when I look back over my day I feel like I got nothing at all accomplished. We really need to be kinder to ourselves because, seriously, I do a lot and don’t even realize it.